Thursday, September 17, 2009

HEAD'S UP: The plan each day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is to give a roundup of the best (and worse where applicable) and most interesting Yours Truly witnesses, from shows to trends to sightings to the rather unusual/bizarre. Mind, this won’t be a comprehensive list simply because I can’t be everywhere. But depend on it, I’ll do my best. Drum roll, please …

BEST OVERALL SHOWAnna Sui – It’s more than a notion to work in prints year after year and keep it fresh, yet Anna Sui manages to do so to great whimsical effect. For spring, the designer is in the mood for a parade or a visit to the circus. That, in part, may explain the huge numbers of prints she is bringing to bear on individual pieces and ensembles – a parade, if you will. And she uses metallic on tweeds, plaids and jacquards to express the mood of such spectacles. Sui’s coherence is palpable in a series of babydoll dresses, tunics, cardigan dress/skirt/shorts ensembles, vests, jackets and cropped skinny pants. It’s a wonder she and her seamstresses did not become hypnotized putting together the turquoise metallic tweed and indigo madras cotton plaid and violet hologram sequins jacket and royal circus border print metallic stars jacquard dress. Or did they?

BEST INTERPRETATION OF A VISIONMichael Kors — In these tough economic and environmental times, the designer has urbane renewal on the brain. It has myriad permutations: transparency, utilitarianism, sharp angles, architectural shapes and so on. In one of the best Kors collections in some time, he effortlessly captures this spirit in T-shirts, V-necks, blouses and shifts. He makes these ordinary garments extraordinary by his placement of silver zippers, transparent stripes and cut-outs, while maintaining their user-friendliness and versatility. A white leather shift with standup/fold down collar, w/one diagonal zipper extending from the left breastbone to the waist and the other from just below the waist to the thigh, sets the tone for the show.

BEST ACCENTSPhillip Lim – Every outfit in Lim’s heavily b&w collection of edgy after-5 and evening wear has an extra quotient of cool and accessibility, thanks to the red barrettes in the models’ chignons. Thanks to the red runway, too.

MOST CIVIC-MINDEDNanette Lepore – Anybody at the Lepore show who bothered to read any of the information on the seat before gawking at the striped cardigans and wildflower shorts would have been given to know that the designer is a soldier in the fight to preserve the city’s Garment Center, an area from 34th to 40th streets between Broadway and Ninth avenues. Among the literature was a copy of The New York Times op-ed piece written by Lepore and Robert Savage, her company's president. It stresses the importance of the Garment Center and suggests that others can learn more about what they can do by visiting http://www.nyc.gov/html/mail/html/mayor.html. New Yorkers can also dial 311.

BEST GIMMICKSeveral people standing just beyond the steps at Bryant Park were passing out napkins and wearing T-shirts with a provocative message: “Feed the Models.” On closer inspection, though, Yours Truly learned that they are not yet another protest group, but were promoting the forthcoming Oxygen network show, “The Naughty Kitchen with chef Blythe Beck.”